Monday, January 23, 2012

Um. Okay.

Until now, I disbelieved speculation that the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was catering to the Bronies. The only apparent proof was that the series sometimes indulged in insanity and weirdness, and I remained unconvinced--in fact, I was damn happy it was there, because it proved that girls' cartoons can be nuts, too. Along with the season 1 crazy moments that were already there in season 1.

However, then we got "Derpy Hooves" made canon. Come on, really? First of all, I can't see making a periphary demograhpic's meme character canon being anything but a bad idea. Catering to fans almost always puts a series in a creative slog, not to mention...isn't part of the appeal that the character isn't canon, but is just a weird fandom easter egg? It sounds almost like the Ghostbusters cartoon--Silmer managed to dodge being annoying by being used sparingly, and then he became insufferable when the spotlight, making the lesson that gimmick characters are best shown judiciously. This isn't exactly the same thing, since Derpy will likely never be a regular, but a similar principle is going on here.

Secondly, "Derpy" sounds so unlike an MLP name that it becomes even more jarring. Some fans thought for a while that the background pony's name was really "Ditzy Doo", based on an offhand reference, and, though I'm new to anythihng MLP, that sounds far more like a pony name than "Derpy".

Thirdly, she doesn't sound cartoon-stupid: she sounds like an actual mentally disabled person. That is what's far too disturbingly adult, not Twilight Sparkle going insane, or Fluttershy appearing to wrestle a bear when she's actually just giving him a massage. That's what's out-of-control Brony catering, not making toys of the male characters. It's disturbing.

From the looks of things, reaction to Derpy's brief canon appearance and speaking role overwhelmed discussion of the actual episode, which further proves what a monumentally stupid idea this was. Sheesh.